Myth, Ritual and Symbolism

Anthropology of Religion, 2019

The role of symbolism in religion

Journal of Jewish Thought and Philosophy, 1997

Journal of Psychotherapy & The Family, 1989

Political power phenomenon and all structural concepts regarding it (authority, legitimacy, sovereignty...) form an important part of historical past of humanity. In traditional communities, in many cases governors who have political power or their representatives hold political power by means of various religious tools and rituals and myths related with it. Such that, spreading political power to whole community by sanctifying political power and by means of the meanings which are attached to religion, ritual and myths has become a necessity of political arena nowadays as it was the case in archaic communities. This situation can be seen through history in ancient civilizations which had a central organization, and even today in the governing mentality of Middle Eastern, African and Asian communities in a theocratic way. In this research, it is aimed to explain how and to what extent practice forms like faith, ritual, myth affect social polarization process and the political power which carries authority to represent it, and the effect of power and hegemonic mentality which may occur as a result of it on communities.

At the following paper I am going to discuss about the creation of symbols and about the role and the symbolism of the body in rituals and generally in human societies. It is generally known that the members of human societies communicate with each other with symbols that are formed in proportion with the cultural environment in which they live and stay. Definitely the creation and definition of symbols does not mean a procedure that can accept changes, but it composes a continuous movement, negotiation in public and private field that takes a lot of different forms according to the cultural and historical environment 2 .

A response note on the first and second chapters of Andrew Lang's Myth, Ritual and Religion.

Caste and Equality in India, 2021

Chapter 8 depicts and analyses the festival of the local goddess, Rāmacaṇḍī. I suggest that we can identify potential cultural resources in the ritual that provide the foundations of people’s moral–ethical agency for overcoming the postcolonial predicament. The ritual goes through three phases: (a) the arrival of the goddess’s power from the forest into the fort-village through the tribal medium, which manifests the value of ontological equality; (b) the union of the divine power with the royal authority mediated by the brāhmaṇa priest, which affirms the value of hierarchy; and (c) the consumption of the product of the union in the form of sacrificial meat, which represents the value of the centrality of power. I argue that this ritual can be seen as an enactment of the sacrificial drama of regeneration, where the three values and social configurations of ‘equality’, ‘hierarchy’ and ‘centrality’ unfold and interact to reproduce the community. The three phases of the ritual represent ‘revolving values’ which are legitimate, plural and multifaceted cultural resources utilised by the people to valorise their existence as well as their social practices. This chapter also analyses how the ritual form and the structure of patronage changed historically (‘ritual in history’) and how the ritual invokes historical memory in the form of myths, legends and family narratives (‘history in ritual’). The ritual can be said to be a representation of local history not in terms of linear transformation but of an accumulation of the past: tribals worshipping the goddess, the gradual migration of peasant-warriors and other caste members into the area, the chief challenging and being defeated by the medium/goddess, royal patronage of the goddess in the form of royal sacrifice, the introduction of the new rich as new patrons of the ritual during the colonial era etc. The entanglement of history and ritual enable the people to reflect upon their past and present. This has the effect of not only legitimising the status and power of the upper castes but also unsettling their hegemony by calling into question the prevailing practices. In the postcolonial situation, there is, on the one hand, the hegemonic attempt by the old and new elites to ritually assert the colonially constructed structure of status and power and, on the other hand, also the subaltern attempts to emphasise the importance of devotion and service, thus placing weight on ontological equality in the face of divine power. It is noteworthy that, in the ritual, there is an increasing number of people making offerings individually and approaching the medium/goddess directly on the hill outside the village. Also, the medium/goddess now enters every house, instead of a chosen few as in the past, to bless family members, particularly married women who cannot come out in public. These changes suggest that more emphasis is now placed on the devotion and service of individuals and direct ties and contact with the goddess. Here, we observe dilemma and contestation between the superalternate values of hierarchy and centrality and the subalternate value of ontological equality. In this way, the ritual not only leads to the reproduction of the structure of status and power, but also illustrates the potential of subaltern resistance against the hegemonic structure.

The Pomegranate, 2013

This paper will explore shared symbols in Western shamanism, their meanings and signification. Shamanism is a contested and multivalent term, so first there will be a theoretical delimitation of what is meant by Western shamanism. The definition presented is a religious practice found in contemporary Western society. Symbolism will then be analysed through three main categories. The first category of symbols will be the use of darkness/light metaphors, and their meaning and importance in Western shamanism. Then the symbol of soul loss and retrieval will be analysed, and the image of the journeys and what this is supposed to achieve. Finally, the practice of symbolic appropriation will be tackled by analysing the use (and abuse) of symbols from other cultures. What this will demonstrate on the one hand is the Western origin of the shared symbols used in Western shamanism and on the other hand how this origin is concealed with non-Western symbols, used as a strategy of legitimation.

A. Archi (ed.) Tradition and Innovation in the Ancient Near East. Proceedings of the 57th Rencontre Assyriologique Internationale at Rome, 4-8 July 2011., 2015

The relationship between myth and ritual, which has the primacy, was at the center of debate between ethnologists through the first half of the 20th century, with certain influence on literary studies. The long transmission of ancient Mesopotamian literary traditions and rituals, as for example concerning the young dying god, provide material for this debate. An interesting case is the tradition of Inana’s journey to the Netherworld and back, and the re-use of its materials for mythological narratives and rituals. A detailed study of this complicated tradition and its derivatives may suggest an answer.

National Academy of Managerial Staff of Culture and Arts Herald, 2018

This paper aims at exploring myth as a phenomenon of culture. The authors have used anthropological integrative approach, semiotic method of representing myth as a language of culture, as well as phenomenological method. Myths provide meaning and purpose to all elements of culture. Myth underlies cultural reality – it is a core of culture. If we imagine culture as an onion comprised of different layers (the “onion” model of culture), than myth is the center of it – it is a core beyond articulation. It generates our beliefs and assumptions that are rarely explicated, however there beliefs and assumptions shape both the structure of personality and culture. They are taken for granted, but support any culture. They manifest themselves in an explicit form in values, purposes, goals, strategies, philosophies, which motivate us and shape our reality. Mythology is one of the ways to comprehend and interpret the world around us. Its basic concepts are the “world” and “human”. Through the lens of these concepts, people realized their destiny in the world and formed life attitudes during the early stages of human development. Giving place to philosophy and science, mythology has not lost its important place in human history. Mythological narratives were borrowed by many religions. In recent decades, representatives of literature and art have intentionally used myths to express their ideas. They have not only rethought ancient myths, but have created new mythological symbols. Nowadays, an interest in myths and mythologies has dramatically increased, and it is not by chance. The famous researchers of the primitive cultures and mythologies as the ways of mastering and interpreting the world have demonstrated the creative power and heuristic potential of myths that will be manifested in the future.

Journal for the Theory of Social Behaviour, 1987

This paper outlines an ethological theory of discourse and behavior that is usually ignored, or at best misconstrued, in discussions of the political significance of myth and ritual.' The theory holds that myth and ritual are constitutive elements of political reality, and that attempts to understand political myth and ritual must recognize this constitutive role. My argument is that while there are circumstances under which myths and rituals can be politically dysfunctional or perverse, even pathological, myth and ritual are not intrinsically deficient modes of discourse and action. Rather, myth and ritual should be recognized as important adaptive mechanisms for both the individual and the group. This adaptive function is fulfilled by myth and ritual because at their most elementary level they provide a form of homeostatic regulation of critical aspects of individual and group interaction with the environment. An important aspect of this regulatory process is, in turn, maintainance of both discursive and behavioral definitions of the status of the individual and the condition of the group. Ethological and evolutionary theories have been part of discussions of myth since the early years of this century when they became a point of dispute between Sigmund Freud and C. G. Jung. As we have gained greater